We set up camp at Great Lakes Naval Station about 35 miles north of Chicago and right on Lake Michigan! A good amount of rain dampened our enthusiasm to trek around Chicago, so we spent some time at the gym playing basketball and rented our first movies from Red Box. We dodged rain showers on Monday to visit Six Flags Great America and were rewarded with really short lines even for the main roller coasters. Mariana went on the Demon coaster at least 3 times and was so excited to have a coaster "her size" that went upside down! When we did get hit by some rain, we left Six Flags for a bit to visit Marytown (about 20 minutes away) which is home to the National Shrine for St. Maximilian Kolbe who was a priest who was executed in place of another prisoner at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II. St. Kolbe was certainly a beacon of light amid the diabolical darkness of the concentration camp and willingly took the place of a husband and father for execution so the man might return to his family (which he eventually did). We returned to Six Flags after the rain went away and had even shorter lines for the rides....and great seats for the Peking Acrobats show that left us all baffled at "how did they do that?" We saved room for pizza after the park and had the deepest dish Chicago-style pizza I've ever had. Most of us preferred the Chicago style deep-dish pizza to the New York style thin pizza...but any day with pizza is a good day!
Six Flags was fun, but the highlight of our stay was visiting the Hogan family on the occasion of their son, Noah, being baptized! We reconnected with the Hogans and also got to meet extended family and friends from all around the US...was pretty cool that we could share stories about common places we had all visited. Thank you Hogans!